The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-04-21

Mr.. Stetson says: "Public morals are
now so low that vast conspiracies are
entered into to defraud whole communi.
ties corporations organized to defrauI
the innocent and unwary-public office
prostituted to personal gain and the cap
ital of banks gambled with by persons
high in social position.
'We find the public press pandering to
a low vulgar curiosity in disgusting
details of crimes against public order aud
decency, to satisfy a morbid public crav-
ing.
eve find that the books of the least
value have the greatest circulation.
'We find that the largest number of
the regular attendants 60 to church in
search of amusement and intellectual
qualification, rather than for worship or
instruction"
These admissions are alarming to
every lover of his country-to every
parent who feels parental solicitude for
the welfare of his children.
We congratulate our people-our peo.
pie of Georgia and the south-that we
are still far removed from this lamenta-
bic condition. Our county of Barlow is
an average county, perhaps no better, no
worse, than the general population of the
South and here we have a population
of $4,000, two thirds white, and only
ninety y.eight arrests for crime in the past
year. Seventy.two of these were
negroes, but we will draw no race dis.
tinctions, and it is one in $50, while in
Massachusetts it is one in twenty.niue.
If we estimate the whites alone it is one
in $50.
Then compare the divorces. There
were only three suits for divorce the last
year, that is one divorce to- more than
| 1000 people and only three divorces to
every 100 marriages.
No wonder that Carter Harrison de.
clines to run again for mayor of Chicago.
He says he needs rest and he fears that
if he should again accept the office he
would have no rest for he would not dare
to leave Chicago for week for fear of a
communist uprising and river of blood
in the streets.
There is one other very damaging
assertion and it is as true at the South as
at the North, and it is this: As high
mental culture increases our sensibility
and self.esteem it also increases our
ability to accumulate wealth by ques.
tionable means and to escape the conse.
quences of criminal acts. Only small
portion of the iniquity in high places
finds punishment. 1t is mainly the poor
and the 'friendless who I'll the prisons.
"The conclusion of the matter" ssys
Mr.. Stetson, "is that intellectual culture
without moral education rather increases
the ability to escape the consequences of
criminal acts, but does not prevent their
commitment. Professor Sewall says 'the
effect of increased intelligence without
accompanying moral principles is either
to invent new forms of vice or to coverup
those crimes which the ignorant cannot
so cuuningly conceal"
In all our public schools good morals
are to some extent enjoined, but this is
voluntary and not required. Obedience
to parents is not taught, nor is the
observance of the ten commandments.
The duties that appertain to citizenship
honesty in trade, truth, industry,
respect for the Sabbath and for the
church-are not included in any school
curriculum, and yet these things are the
very foundation of society and good gov.
ernnent, and tf far more importance
than trigonometry or greek or rhetoric.
If the children we're taught all these at
home there would be les, necessity for
teaching them at school, but they are
not. How many parents teach them
The heather Chinese teaches his chill
dren obedience and honest dealing, and
their laws enforce these virtues rigor.
ously; but ours do not. On the contrary,
there are, perhaps, as many parents
afraid of their children as children
afraid of their parents. How many
fathers are there who, instead of teaching
their boys honesty and truth, set them an
example of overreaching and dissem.
bling in trade? Where are the preach
ers who preach these virtues vigorously
and Systematically? But, even if they
did, how many of the children are there
to hear?
In all the public shoots of ofGermany and
Prussia religion and morals stand first in
the curriculum, and in the latter country
no teacher is qualified until he has been
instructed in religion and morals fol
three years in seminary established for
that purpose.
But instruction in good morals and
religion is not all. They are required to
do work-manual work of some kind.
The mind and the body are trained
together.
In treating of this, MI. Stetson says
that the State commissioners affirm that
the great advantage of prison life to
youthful convicts is the requirement Of
the habit of industrious labor.
What a commentary is this upon an
educational system that boy has to be
sent to prison to learn trade.
!. Now / do not know that our system
differs materially from theirs, but let us
take warning in time and fortify. Their
ratio of illiteracy is to 100, ours is "a
to 100. 1t vas that in 1880. 1 do not
think it is more than 20 now. We wish
to lessen it until there is not rational
child in the State over ten years that